Most palliative and end of life care at NBT is provided by the ward doctors and nurses led by the consultant in charge of the patient’s care. For patients and families with more complex palliative and end of life care needs, the ward team can refer to the Hospital Specialist Palliative Care Team who will work with them.

Specialist palliative care is available to any patient within North Bristol NHS Trust who has an advanced, progressive, life-threatening illness with a high level of need.

The Hospital Palliative Care Team is an advisory service providing specialist assessment and advice on the management of a range of issues that patient’s and their relatives and carers may face. This may include:

• Physical symptoms such as pain or sickness
• Coming to terms with difficult news
• Talking through treatment choices
• Help with talking to other family members
• Practical advice on benefits
• Spiritual support
• Facilitating patient choice in planning future care (advance care planning)
• Facilitating rapid discharge from hospital at end of life
• Referring to community health care professionals and palliative care services
  to ensure continuity of care
• End of life care

Visits by the Specialist Palliative Care Team are made from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

The team consists of consultants, clinical nurse specialists, specialist registrars, occupational therapists, chaplains and social workers. A number of nurses in the team are qualified nurse prescribers. This means that following an assessment they may prescribe medications to help relieve any symptoms that the patient may be experiencing. The nurse prescriber will discuss this with the patient and/or carer in further detail.

The team also delivers an extensive education programme to many groups of staff in the hospital aiming to develop knowledge and skills in palliative and end of life care.